Guest Columnist – Colorado, help U.S. end colonialism in Puerto Rico

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By George Laws Garcia

Executive Director, Puerto Rico Statehood Council

Haga click aquí para leer la versión en español

Last weekend Colorado’s Hispanic community held one of its most beloved traditions, the “Taste of Puerto Rico” festival in Denver’s iconic Civic Center Park. After two years without the annual festival due to COVID-19, this lively celebration of Puerto Rican culture, food and music attracted thousands of Puerto Ricans, other Latinos and the broader community. With the help of local Denver newspaper, El Comercio de Colorado, we took this opportunity to raise awareness about the lack of equal rights and voting representation of the 3.2 million fellow U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico today, and to invite Coloradans to tell Congress “End Colonialism in Puerto Rico.”

Colorado, help U.S. end colonialism in Puerto Rico Acabar con el colonialismo en Puerto Rico

We spoke with youth, professionals, families, veterans, elderly and people of all ages, races and political leanings at the event and found a genuine interest in learning more about why U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are treated differently and what people in Colorado could do to help. As they were proudly celebrating Puerto Rican culture in Denver, we informed event participants that their fellow citizens living in Puerto Rico are currently being denied the right to voting representation in Congress, have no representation in the Senate, yet they are subject to federal laws and are treated unequally under those laws. This is particularly unjust for the nearly one hundred thousand veterans and current military service members in Puerto Rico who sacrifice greatly to defend American democracy, yet are still denied the right to vote for their Commander in Chief.

Territorial inequality in Puerto Rico is the main reason why Puerto Ricans, Colorado’s second largest Hispanic group, now number well over 42,000 and continue to grow each year. In Colorado, Puerto Ricans find better economic opportunities, a higher quality of life, and full enfranchisement in America’s democratic process, all of which they’re denied back on the Island. Every day that Congress fails to end Puerto Rico’s unequal and undemocratic territory status the Island population drops further, with close to 12% having left just in the last decade. That’s why it’s not surprising that when locally sponsored votes have asked Puerto Ricans to choose their future political status three times in the last ten years, the majority have chosen full equality and democracy through statehood over all other options.

Now the people of Colorado have a chance to help. This month the Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill that would finally empower the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico to make a definitive choice on whether to become full and equal participants in American society through “Statehood” or to create their own separate country through either “Independence” or independence with “Free Association.” As it happens, four members of that Committee are from Colorado, Representatives Lauren Bobert, Diana Degette, Doug Lamborn and Joe Neguse. As voting constituents your opinions should matter to these members, so we urge all Coloradans to contact their members of Congress to tell them: “End Colonialism in Puerto Rico and Support Statehood!”

George Laws Garcia is a former adviser to two governors of Puerto Rico and to Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner in the House of Representatives. He currently serves as the executive director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. Follow him on Twitter: @LawsPR51.